Canhelp freefall

Mark Hardiman braved a 13,000 feet skydive in memory of his grandmother Doreen West, who died of cancer.

The daredevil Media Editor from Harrow travelled to Cirencester on a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and very little cloud cover. He donned his body suit, harness and fetching red hat and took a 15 minute plane journey to 13,000 feet.

Once there he was strapped to an instructor and approached the door: "As I looked down it was slightly frightening, as I knew that this was it, but I didn’t really have time to dwell on this feeling as I was pushed out shortly after.

"The first few seconds were really scary as I was just falling through the sky, with a complete feeling of weightlessness, which was immense. After I got to grips with this it was really good, with the colossal wind force on my stomach and face."

After a 45-50 second free fall, during which Mark, his instructor and another diver fell in formation for 10 seconds, the parachute opened and he glided down to earth. "The landing was fun," he said, "I thought we were coming down a bit fast as the grass was looking closer a lot quicker than I thought it should, but we landed softly and smoothly.

"This was an experience I will never forget, and best of all it was in aid of a good cause." Mark raised over £450 for the Charity's Canhelp campaign.

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